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Aug. 27—It was 671 days between Shawnee’s 33-19 win over Lima Central Catholic on the opening night of high school football Thursday and the last time the Indians celebrated a victory on the final night of the 2022 regular season.
But it was a mere 56 seconds that played a huge role in Thursday night’s victory, which Shawnee hopes means a brighter future after an 0-10 season last year.
With slightly more than three minutes left in the first half and LCC leading 7-6, Shawnee scored two touchdowns in 56 seconds to take a 20-7 lead at halftime and never lost the lead after that.
The first came on an 88-yard touchdown run by quarterback J.J. Spyker. The second, on LCC’s second offensive play after Spyker’s TD, arrived via an interception for a touchdown by Cole Sunderland.
“That was the biggest game changer in the game,” Spyker said about Sunderland’s interception. “Right after my touchdown a pick-six just helped carry the momentum the whole game.
“We worked all summer for this and we were hungry. We knew it was coming,” he said.
Shawnee got off to a shaky start with turnovers on its first two possessions, including a fumble, which set up Matthew Quatman’s 4-yard touchdown that gave LCC, a team that had returning starters at 18 positions, a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter.
“I think there were definitely some pre-game jitters. I saw how we warmed up tight. I thought we settled in during the second quarter. But that first quarter we did about everything as wrong as we could offensively. We turned the ball over, bad snaps, silly penalties,” said first-year Shawnee coach Shane Wireman.
“We’ve been harping on mental toughness a lot. We dug ourselves a hole but we found a way to stay in there and make a few plays and swing the momentum back before halftime.
“I think this was important for our football team and our community to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/football-notebook-shawnee-snaps-losing-233300338.html
Author : The Lima News, Ohio
Publish date : 2024-08-27 23:33:00
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